The Sons of Eln

There was once a farmer named Eln, who knew nothing of crops, but was neighbor to Akt and Lokh. One day Lokh told Eln of a new place he would discover, full of fertile lands so that Elb could learn to grow himself. Eln was afraid, but saw that Akt would be going to this new land too, and so he agreed to join them. n’tn’tr’s

In the new land, Eln created himself a farm, where he could grow himself and many things besides. Lokh told him and the others many tricks about growing yourself, but it was hard for Eln to absorb the lessons. So Lokh peered into his heart and said, “if you have children, they will learn the lessons for you, and you will grow.”

So Eln decided to have children. But he didn’t realize that to have children he himself would die. When he died, his body became a pair of twins – the first, Ael, and the second, An. Unfortunately, neither had a perfect share of their father. Ael was afraid and averse to change, while An hadn’t his father’s self-control. Ael believed that if he and An could combine, however, they could rectify the unbalance.

“Let us become our father,” said Ael to his brother. But An had already begun to wander away and explore the lakes and forests beyond the farm.

As he wandered, An left pieces of himself behind. And yet, he was always whole; each part left behind was different in a way, but still strong and fully formed.

Far to the west, An saw a distant, sun-baked land. He threw his arm to it, where it darkened and became hard. To the east, he threw his eyes to a strange and fog-clouded land. And as he walked through the swamps and forests and jungles and mountains, he left behind toes, before swimming to a distant land in the north, where he settled a while.

But for each part that he threw or left, it grew right back, and so An was never incomplete. And those parts that he left in his travels too, became whole in time.

Meanwhile, afraid to leave the farm, Ael remained behind, trying to stay as still as possible. And in doing so, he became brittle, and fell apart from the winds and the rains.

First fell the ears, which became like brass on the ground and could hear only themselves until they vanished. Then the heart fell out, and was carried away by powerful spirits. Around the same time, the hands turned green and broke away.

The feet shriveled off and fell in a river, carried off in different directions by the currents. As the arms snapped away they became wings and flew into the sky. The legs rolled like logs into nearby bushes, grew mouths, and ate each other. Finally, with nothing to support it, the body crumbled, leaving nothing but an angry head with regretful memories.

In time, the sundered parts of Ael took bodies of their own, changed and incomplete. But the parts of An were always fully formed, despite being changed by everything around them.